In the first round of the 2017 FIA World Rallycross Championship in Spain, MJP Racing Team Austria driver Timo Scheider (AUT, #44) finished second overall just behind current World RX Champion Mattias Ekström. Kevin Eriksson the team mate from Timo Scheider (SWE, #96) finished in P13 but showed great potential which the team can work forward to the rest of the season.

Barcelona Circuit in Spain showed again brilliant Rallycross action during the first round of the 2017 FIA World Rallycross season. On day 1 both drivers performed great. Timo Scheider got placed overall in second position, while Kevin Eriksson just got a bit unlucky with the weather (rain affected his Q2 race) so he got placed in P13 overall after day 1. On Sunday the well crowded Circuit de Barcelona faced sunny weather and dry track condition. Timo Scheider had again a fantastic run in Q3 and Q4 which placed him in pole position for the upcoming semi final. Kevin Eriksson just missed to qualify for the semi finals by one point so he didn’t go any further that day.

With a great start in the semi final Timo Scheider followed Johan Kristofferson until the end of the semi final and finished in second position which send him into the main final for the day. In the final Timo got again a fantastic start and chasing current World RX Champion Mattias Ekström. The rest of the 6 cars field Supecar final could not hold on the two leading drivers Mattias Ekström and Timo Scheider. In the last lap Timo came very close to Mattias Ekström but Timo didn’t made any risky move and finished second.

Timo Scheider (Ford Fiesta MJP #44, MJP Racing Team Austria)„Amazing start into the season. The car felt great all weekend and I’m really happy with that P2 finish here in Barcelona. Thanks to all guys from MJP Racing for the hard work over the last weeks/months. I do look very much forward to the next World RX Championship race at Portugal.”

Kevin Eriksson (Ford Fiesta MJP #96, MJP Racing Team Austria)“I just didn’t had the luck with me this weekend. The car feels great I think we have huge potential this season. Big congratulations to my team mate Timo who finished second today.”

Max Pucher (Team Owner, MJP Racing Team Austria)„It’s a fantastic start into the season. Having Timo on the podium here in Barcelona is brilliant. Timo’s driving was phenomenal, he really shows the speed of the car. I must say also Kevin did great during the weekend. He just was quite unlucky yesterday with the bad weather conditions in Q2. Also today he got into a start clash in Q3 and forced some hard racing with Ken Block in Q4. Anyway, he had great laptimes which keeps us optimistic for the upcoming races. Again, I must say that the start of the 2017 couldn’t be better. We look very much forward to the upcoming races.”

About MJP RacingMJP Racing Team Austria is the World Championship Rallycross Team of MJP Racing founded in 2014 by Max J. Pucher a successful software entrepreneur. MJP Racing designs and builds unique high-tech motorsport projects using state of the art technology. For the 2017 World Rallycross Championship MJP Racing designed and built new Ford Fiesta Supercars with a new body and suspension.